


Won't Make Me a Winner, Babe

by skytramp



Category: Great Men Academy สุภาพบุรุษสุดที่เลิฟ (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Identity Issues, Multiple Selves, VR Shenanigans, Vier's Problems™
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28357350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skytramp/pseuds/skytramp
Summary: Vier waits for his instructions, for the authoritative voice of the Greatest Competition announcer to ring through his head like it had in the first round, but he hears nothing but a low buzzing in its place, a mash of random syllables scattered between silence and static.The finals of The Greatest Competition 2019 have begun, but something has gone wrong, and each of our finalists find themselves in a scenario intended for someone else.
Relationships: Love/Tangmo (Great Men Academy), Vier&Love (Great Men Academy), Vier&Tangmo (Great Men Academy)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	Won't Make Me a Winner, Babe

**Author's Note:**

> I use she/her pronouns (or no pronouns at all) for Love regardless of the body she is in.

The forest around him is lit with an otherworldly purple glow, and Vier feels the fear welling up in his gut at the darkness around him. This isn’t the forest as he knows it, this is something else entirely. He waits for his instructions, for the authoritative voice of the Greatest Competition announcer to ring through his head like it had in the first round, but he hears nothing but a low buzzing in its place, a mash of random syllables scattered between silence and static. He has no directions. Ahead of him he sees Love, just for a moment, in the form of the girl he’d seen by the lake once before. She wears the same yellow dress that he’d pulled her from the lake in all that time ago, but she is only visible for a second before she turns and runs into the trees. 

He hears a voice echoing in the distance. _“Find me, Vier.”_ She says, and he recognizes her voice from the way she’d said his name that night, pleading for his understanding. He didn’t understand then and he doesn’t understand now, what brings a girl like Love into her current situation. He had been so shocked in the moment that it hardly fazed him when she’d confessed to liking him, her lie was more important, everything about her was a lie. He will find her now, he decides, and make her confess to the world what she had confessed to him, it’s the only right way to end this. 

He follows her voice deeper into the forest as his eyes adjust to the darkness around him. Her voice seems to come from all sides, a haunting echo, repeating his name, repeating her command, and he knows he’s half guessing every time he chooses a direction. He pushes his hair out of his face and his arm grazes his cheek where the bruise is still tender, even through the VR mechanism, from where Tangmo had punched him hours before. He pushes the thought out of his mind the best he can, but Tangmo’s question keeps repeating: _“What did I ever do to you?”_ Vier still isn’t sure that he has an answer. Nothing. Everything. Tangmo is his best friend, his closest friend, and everything that Vier can’t turn himself into no matter how hard he tries. He knows that he was wrong, that his split second decision to send that reporter in Tangmo’s direction may cost him his friendship in the end, but if that does happen, Vier is pretty sure it’s only what he deserves after what he’s done. 

_“Find me, Vier.”_ Love calls again. 

_**You… Find Yourself.**_ The sputtering echo of the announcer’s instructions at last pushes through the static in Vier’s head.

⥈

The first thing Love feels is the rush of the wind tousling her short hair. She opens her eyes to see a long straight road ahead of her, and yellow grassy fields on either side. She waits for the announcers to tell her what to do, and wonders idly if she’s just meant to guess. Tangmo and Vier have been here before, been through the competition, but Love is lost, and desperately scared to lose. She hears his footsteps before she sees him, and she nearly faints when Tangmo, dressed in similar running clothes to her own, steps up beside her. 

“Hey, handsome,” he says, “care for a race?” He throws a thumb over his shoulder towards the rest of the road, and smiles until Love responds. 

There’s no way this is the real Tangmo, the way he had looked at her the moment they put on the VR headsets made her sure of that. He was not going to forgive her this easily. But this Tangmo is here, smiling at her in the way that the real Tangmo used to, and she can’t help but smile back at him. “Are you sure you can keep up?” She asks, and he laughs and takes off running. 

Love runs after him. She loves the endurance this body has built, the power of muscles she had never really used before attending this school. She catches up to Tangmo easily. She can’t help the sharp spike of guilt in her gut when she sees his face look towards her. It’s not _this_ Tangmo that makes her guilty, but the real one standing across the stage from her right now. But his face is his face, and she had watched the way it crumbled as she lied about not liking him back. This Tangmo is unfazed, and keeps pace with her, seemingly uninterested in winning whatever race they had begun. They trade glances as they run, and he smiles every time she catches his eyes. She finds herself smiling right back. 

Her endurance wanes, eventually, and she stops to catch her breath. Tangmo stops alongside her, and where Love is bent, hands on knees trying to get lungfuls of air, Tangmo stands straight, almost unaffected by the running. “Why’d you stop?” Love asks once enough of her breath has returned. 

Tangmo shrugs one shoulder. “The view is better if I’m not winning.” He says, and winks. 

_**Your Opponent… Yourself.**_ The announcer buzzes in her ears, and Love wishes she didn’t already know that much. 

⥈

Tangmo’s eyes blink open amidst the bright spotlight, not unlike the stage he’d left behind when he put on the VR headset. Instead of the crowd in front of him, however, there was only one figure, standing with his back turned, in a black Judo uniform. They both are standing on the mat, and if not for the dramatic lighting, Tangmo could believe they’re just back in the school gym, preparing for another match. He has yet to hear any instructions from the announcer, just a quiet persistent buzzing where it feels like the words should be. He looks instead to his opponent, “Hey, man.” He calls out.

The man across from him turns, and though he looks physically in all ways like Vier, his expression is something Tangmo’s never seen from his best friend, even when he was splayed out on the floor after being punched. This Vier is darker, hard in ways that Tangmo never imagined he could be. Even without real instructions, it’s clear that they’re meant to have a match, and Tangmo is comfortable winging it without stated objectives. He does a quick nod to this strange Vier in front of him. 

The man speaks, and he even has Vier’s voice. “I won’t let you win this time.” He sounds downright menacing, and Tangmo gives him a half confused expression. In his last match with Vier he had lost, and he vividly remembers the moment of shock and hurt when he did, what did this guy mean when he said ‘this time’?

The match begins with no more warning than a shared eye contact, and they are slowly circling each other, looking for an opening to get a clean hold and throw. Vier gets the first grab, and as Tangmo adjusts his footing to make his escape he feels the impact of Vier’s fist through fabric against his jaw and then he’s thrown, back bouncing unceremoniously against the mat beneath them. Tangmo knows it’s an illegal move, but he keeps his mouth shut. If that’s how Vier wants to play it, that’s how they’ll play it. He looks up at his opponent, and Vier is smiling down at him with a glare in his eyes. 

_**...Mission… Put Down… Opponent.**_ The announcer’s garbled message comes through into Tangmo’s spinning head as he gets back to his feet, feeling all too much like prey in the eyes of a predator. Put down your opponent? He already knows that much, thanks for nothing, announcer. 

⥈

Vier thinks he’s got an idea of Love’s direction now, and he pushes through the underbrush as quickly as he can to catch up with her. He’s seen her appear half a dozen times, flitting in and out of his sight, and he’s half afraid she isn’t following the same rules as him. Can she be two places at once? Something about the dark forest around him keeps him in his own head, keeps the fear in the back of his throat. His thoughts are circling, cycling through every recent moment he regrets, every bad decision he’s made. Every time he hurt Love, hurt Tangmo, even without realizing what he was doing.

He remembers leaning in, close enough that it could have been a kiss, and asking Love to cheer for him in the judo match. He remembers her panicked intake of breath, and the bright smile she gave him afterward. He knew what he was doing, he just tried not to think about it. He told himself that it was just a crush, something that Tangmo wasn’t taking seriously, because when had he ever taken anything seriously? But that was an excuse that had fallen away the moment the match had ended. Vier’s triumph lasted a single intake of breath before he looked at Tangmo on the ground beneath him. The mirrored fear and disgust in Tangmo and Love’s expressions after the match had sealed his fate, there was no escaping the situation with any level of dignity intact, he’d sold that once the monster inside of him decided he was willing to win in any way possible.

He hears Love calling again. “Find me.” She sounds close, and Vier adjusts his path. When he next hears her voice the phrase has changed. 

“Cheer for me, Love.” He freezes, almost tripping on the underbrush in his haste to stop moving, and looks frantically around to see her. 

“Go on inside.” Love’s voice taunts him with his own words to the reporter the day before. Vier’s heart is pounding in his chest now, the fear once at the back of his throat has engulfed him entirely. She’s repeating the phrases, she’s everywhere around him now and he can’t escape. The words shift, voice changes, and it’s _his_ voice, outside his own head, taunting him. Vier closes his eyes and holds his head. There isn’t an escape, he can still hear her, himself, whatever is punishing him in this way. He collapses heavily to his knees in the undergrowth, feeling the fall of tears squeezed from his eyes. He has to keep going, he tells himself, he _has_ to keep moving, to find her, to complete the mission and win the competition. He doesn’t know what else he can do.

“I’m sorry.” He says, just a whisper at first, and then louder. “I’m sorry, Love. I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m sorry I hurt you.” The voices stop, the silence leaving his ears ringing in its wake.

His eyes are still closed, head bowed, when he feels Love’s hand on his shoulder. “I forgive you, Vier.” 

⥈

Tangmo scrambles back to his feet and prepares to square off once again. “You’re not the Vier I know.” He says defiantly to his opponent who is still half smiling across from him. No matter how shitty Vier can be, and Tangmo has the bruise on his knuckles to prove it, he isn’t the type to smile over his opponent, or to revel in underhanded tactics. Tangmo remembers overhearing Vier admit to Nuclear what he had done, how a moment of petty competition had caused Vier to upend Tangmo’s entire life, and he grimaces towards this Vier in front of him.

“Are you sure you really know me?” Vier says, still smiling, and he moves in quickly for a grab. Tangmo dodges backwards. Vier laughs. “Don’t you want to win, Tangmo? Don’t you want to beat me?” 

Tangmo wants to say no. He wants to not care about winning this fight, he wants to go back six months and to never have started caring about any of this in the first place. But he knows he can’t go back. He’s got Love in his head and so, so deeply in his heart, reminding him how it feels to _try_ , how it feels to have goals and dreams and damn it he can’t lose all that now, even if Love doesn’t want him back. Love might not be gay, and hell, neither is Tangmo as far as he’s concerned, he’s something else entirely, but Love gave him something maybe better than returned affection... ambition.

Tangmo watches Vier’s smirking face as they circle each other, and he makes the first move this time. Vier gets the upper hand in the grab, and while Tangmo jerks his head away to dodge the underhanded fist against his jaw he also twists his hips and keeps his hold in a way that when Vier throws him, they both fall. Tangmo lands hard on his back, harder for the fact that Vier falls immediately on top of him with his full weight. Vier lifts himself just enough that he makes eye contact with Tangmo, hovering centimeters away. He speaks quietly, and Tangmo can feel the movement of his chest.

“Are you sure it’s Love you want, Tangmo?” 

Tangmo’s hand shakes as he pushes Vier bodily away and scrambles to get back to his feet. “Fuck off.” He says by way of response, though his heart is beating faster than when they’d first fallen. He shoves his hair out of his eyes and shakes his head to clear it. This Vier, it seems, is definitely not above mind games. 

⥈

Love has given up the premise of the race completely, and instead of continuing running after her break to catch her breath, she sits on the edge of the road, looking out over the serenely swaying fields of grass. Tangmo plops down next to her, not unlike how they used to sit beside the tree on campus. She keeps telling herself this isn’t real, this isn’t the real Tangmo, it’s just an illusion, but she can’t seem to stop herself from enjoying every time he flirts with her. She has just learned to school her expression as she concentrates on the swaying grass in front of her when Tangmo leans in and asks her a question.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” He asks. She doesn’t even have to look to hear that he’s still smiling. She does look though, and sees that though he is smiling, there is a worried line between his eyebrows. Love balls her fists and has to take a deep breath. He’s concerned about her, he looks genuinely concerned about her wellbeing. She takes another breath. 

“Tangmo…” She manages to just barely keep looking in his direction as she asks, “why do you like me?” 

His reaction is immediate as he sputters and looks away, Love can see the blush that rises to his cheeks and ears. “I don’t! I mean, what do you mean?” He mumbles in response. 

Love doesn’t reply until he’s able to look back at her. “Please,” she says quietly, “I need to know why.” 

Tangmo’s face is still red, and he runs his hands through his hair nervously. “I don’t know.” He says at last. “I just do. Do you want a list?” He tries a smile at the end, and even half hearted the smile catches Love off guard. 

“If you… have a list I’ll take it?” Love says sincerely.

Tangmo laughs. “There’s number one!” And the smile is in full force now as he raises a finger to signal the number. “Sometimes you completely miss a joke.” 

Love covers her own face this time and she knows she’ll be blushing soon. “ _Tangmo_ , be serious!” She says through her hands. 

Tangmo gently pulls her hands away and looks her in the eyes. “This is me being serious. I don’t know what you want me to say, I only recently figured it out myself.” He’s smiling, and he doesn’t let go of her hands that he pulled from her face. “Does this mean you like me back, though?” He lets go of her hands only to gently bump her shoulder with his elbow in a joking way. “Are you confessing to me, Love?” 

She feels her expression freeze. Even with the entirely different scenario this is starting to feel too familiar. She doesn’t want to break his heart again. She can’t do that to him, even if he’s not real, even if it’s all an illusion and part of a game, it’s too much.

Tangmo must see her expression because he leans in again. “Oh shit, is that a no, then?” He asks, more serious than he’s sounded all day. Love can feel the tears welling in her eyes and she avoids looking back at him. She can see when he moves closer and twists so that he can put a long arm over her shoulders. “Don’t cry about it, please.” He says quietly, “I’m fine! It’s okay… if you don’t like me back. I’m a big boy, I’ll survive.” His arm tightens a little around her shoulder and he gives her a reassuring shake. She can’t help but cry now. 

“I do…” She manages through her cry choked throat, she steadies her voice the best she can before continuing. “I do like you, though. It’s just… I don’t think you really like me.” She pauses. Part of her remembers that she’s in a game right now, that the whole country could be watching this broadcast, that, rightfully, if she says what she wants to say next she could very well be disqualified from the competition. At this moment it feels worth it. “This isn’t me, Tangmo.” She doesn’t look over at him, but she savors the feeling of his arm around her while she still can. She doesn’t want to enjoy it too much, so maybe the pain won’t be so bad when he lets go after he hears the truth, but she can’t help it. He doesn’t ask any follow up questions yet, just holds her silently. She takes a deep, shaky breath. “I’m a girl.” 

⥈

Somehow the purple light is less menacing as it reflects off the surface of the lake. Vier and Love sit a meter apart, just at the shore, watching the small waves lap at the edge of the grass. Vier has his legs stretched out in front of him, while Love has curled in on herself, knees tucked under her dress. When Vier let himself tell Love everything, let himself admit how he feels about the awful things he did to both her and Tangmo, he couldn’t seem to stop. Love, as always, was a good listener, and she stays silent as his own story drifts off to nothing. 

“Love, how do you…” Vier stops, watching the water and gathering his thoughts, “how do you keep going, even when you’re stuck in a body you don’t want?”

From the corner of his eyes he can see Love looks a little surprised. “Bodies can be important,” she starts, and to this point Vier agrees, he knows how he fights to keep his looking the way that he wants it to, “but after everything, I’m still me. I’m me whether or not strangers think I look like a boy or a girl. I know what I want and I’m going to keep trying to get it, and I’m not saying it’s easy but… you can’t control everything.”

Vier nods. “And you’re okay with that? Not being in control?” 

He hears Love shift a bit and turns towards her to see she’s looking at him more directly now. “Vier. No one’s okay with being out of control all the time.” She smiles, and somehow it's the same smile he’s always seen from her, no matter the body. “But sometimes the universe knows better than you, and you have to let things happen.”

He tries to smile back at her, and he’s not sure if he looks like he’s smiling or grimacing, but her words stay with him. They lapse into a comfortable silence and both turn back to watch the lake.

After a few minutes pass Vier speaks again. “How can you forgive me so easily? I manipulated you… I betrayed you, and Tangmo.” His fists are squeezed into tight balls, and he can feel how tense he is, waiting for her to take it all back, to condemn him like he deserves. 

It doesn’t take Love long to respond, and Vier can’t express how grateful he feels to her for that. “I can tell you’re really sorry, that’s why. You’re not unforgivable, Vier.” He turns to watch her now, to see if he believes her. She looks him in the eye when she continues. “You punish yourself more than anyone else will. You deserve forgiveness, but not from me or Tangmo, from yourself.” 

⥈

Tangmo and Vier circle the mat again and again. No one had said when the match would be over, how many throws would be good enough, and Tangmo knows the next throw could be it, he can’t let himself be grabbed again. Vier keeps a steady stream of taunts, ever ready to remind Tangmo of his inevitable defeat. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t given up yet,” Vier says, “that’s what you’re good at. I always win everything we do together, anyway. You know that, don’t you?” 

Tangmo takes the next opportunity to go on the offensive, and finally gets Vier in a grab that lets Tangmo throw him to the ground. Vier doesn’t have a snarky one liner for that, and climbs quickly to his feet with a sour expression. Tangmo smiles back as smugly as he can manage. Their movements get even more aggressive, they circle faster, they don’t speak, and they both dodge half a dozen grabs before Tangmo gets his next grip. His throw is fast and harder than he would normally throw someone he respects, but there’s something cathartic about watching Vier wince on the mat and stand up ever so slightly slower than before. His previously sour expression is something more akin to rage at this point. Tangmo knows he’s never seen the real Vier look like this, but if this guy is any part of Vier, maybe it’s his true competitive nature. 

Is this how Vier really feels about losing? Is this why he never gives up, no matter the odds? 

Is this why he did all those things he did to Tangmo? 

“Do you really hate losing this much?” Even if this isn’t Vier, Tangmo thinks that the question might put him off guard.

Tangmo was right, and rather than answering Vier freezes, and Tangmo moves in, quick to get an advantageous grab and shoulder throw. Vier groans when he hits the mat, but rises quickly. 

“You’re scared.” Tangmo says, in his element. He knows what buttons to push and this asshole version of Vier can’t keep up with him now. They circle quickly and Vier goes for a grab which Tangmo dodges, only to secure his own. He holds Vier close. “It’s okay to be scared.” He says with a smile, “But I’m not letting you win this time.” 

Vier no longer seems to have a good response, he just focuses on avoiding the throw and trying to get his own good grip on Tangmo. Vier does look scared though, that is something he can clearly see. Tangmo remembers back to all the times they used to spar. This Vier’s taunting hadn’t been wrong, Tangmo never won. He never trained, never really tried at much at all. But, while a portion of that was personal (Why try when everything’s easy enough without it?), there is also a part of Tangmo that knows how important winning has always been to Vier. And despite everything that has happened in the last few months, Vier is his best friend, and Tangmo cares a hell of a lot about his feelings. 

They’ve had nearly three full years of friendship. Vier has helped him pull off dozens of pranks, they’ve laughed, joked, even cried together too many times to count. Tangmo knows that Vier will be his friend for life, and whenever he gets the hell out of this VR program he’s going to give that dumbass a big hug and apologize for punching him. At this moment, however, he’s got a match to win. 

Tangmo tightens his grip and throws Vier to the mat. 

At the impact Vier dissolves, scattering into hundreds of tiny pieces before disappearing. The mat dissolves around him, the walls dissolve, and Tangmo, himself, dissolves. 

⥈

Love holds her breath after the admission. She waits for Tangmo to recoil, to pull away in something between surprise and disgust. She keeps waiting until she can no longer hold her breath, but he doesn’t move. She turns to him then, and he’s watching her with a bemused smile. “Is that what you’re worried about?” He asks, he smiles through the question and Love looks away and nods. Tangmo does let go of her then, but he quickly adjusts where he’s sitting and pushes gently at her shoulder until she turns to face him. “Look at me, Love.” He says now, and she does. He’s smiling. “Look how handsome I am, you really think I’ve never had a girlfriend?” 

Love knows she’s staring, wide eyed and perhaps still a little teary eyed, but Tangmo is still smiling like he’s the funniest guy on the planet and it’s the best possible thing she could see at this moment. He doesn’t look the least bit embarrassed any more, he just keeps looking at her and slowly grabs both her hands in his. 

“So…” Love ventures quietly, “you still like me?” 

Tangmo nods enthusiastically and Love barely holds back a giggle. “What about you though?” 

“Do I still like you?” Love confirms, “Yes.” 

Tangmo shakes his head a little. “No, I mean, do you like _yourself_? Because I’m going to like you no matter what, I’m not sure you could stop me if you tried at this point. But you looked _so_ worried just then, are you okay?” 

Love lets out something halfway between a choked laugh and a surprised sob at Tangmo’s response and he squeezes her hands. She looks down at her hands in Tangmo’s. Her own hands are bigger than they used to be, but they’re still smaller than his. So many things have changed since her unicorn wish, and she’s had to adjust to so many things in this new body. She knows she’s a girl, no matter what other people might see when she walks down the street, or even if she’s somehow still allowed to attend Great Men Academy, other people’s assumptions don’t matter. Love knows that there is a decent sized part of her that wants to win the wish and get her old body back. But, here, in this moment, she feels the growing part of her that thinks she could be okay staying just the way she is, as long as she has people like Tangmo and her other friends to remind her who she is. 

“Yes,” she replies at last, “I think I’ll be okay.” She feels one last squeeze of Tangmo’s hands around hers and watches his smile as they dissolve together. 

⥈

The fear Vier felt upon entering the dark forest has almost entirely faded here where he sits beside the lake shore. In their discussion Vier can’t help but realize Love knows him better than he ever realized before. It’s hard to tell if it’s simply empathy, or maybe just that they’re more alike than either of them ever realized. 

“Love,” Vier ventures, “do you think Tangmo will ever forgive me for what I’ve done to him?” 

Love gives a brief nod and tucks her long hair behind her ears. “I’m pretty sure he will. Tangmo is a forgiving person. But you’re going to have to apologize to him, you know.” 

Vier nods in reply. “I know.” He says. “I will.” 

The waves lap silently in front of them. 

Love breaks the silence this time. “Do you still want to win?” 

Vier begins to answer, he wants to say a vehement _yes, of course_ , but he stops. He does want to be The Greatest again, for the third year running. But after everything he’s gone through he’s not quite sure _why_ he wants that anymore. He doesn’t even have a wish in mind for the unicorn this year. He looks over at Love, remembering the real Love across from him on the stage in the real world, and all the hopes and dreams tied up in her wish, why should Vier beat her in this situation? Why would he want to?

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Whatever happens, happens.” He says, and he watches as the lake dissolves, flake by flake into the night sky ahead of him, like millions of stars winking out of existence.

**Author's Note:**

> _And when you ask me, "What's this?"  
>  Why don't you wanna talk about it?  
> It's nothing  
> I'm not trying to be someone  
> I'm not trying to be someone  
> I'm not trying to be someone  
> I'm not  
> So stop trying to be someone  
> So stop trying to be someone  
> So stop trying to be someone  
> So stop  
> I'll never be a safety net  
> It doesn't matter what you get, go  
> So go on and place a bet  
>  **Won't make me a winner, babe** , I know_
> 
> \- Safety Net by Nilüfer Yanya


End file.
